The Crisis in a Nutshell: Lingering Weinergate

“I did not send that tweet. My system was hacked. I was pranked.” —Anthony Weiner

“Last Friday night, I tweeted a photograph of myself that I intended to send as a direct message as part of a joke to a woman in Seattle. Once I realized I had posted it to Twitter, I panicked, I took it down, and said that I had been hacked.” —Anthony Weiner

“The last 36 hours have been the most confusing, anxiety-ridden hours of my life. I’ve watched in sheer disbelief as my name, age, location, links to any social networking site I’ve ever used, my old phone numbers and pictures have been passed along from stranger to stranger.” —Gennette Cordova

“After a while I said to Anthony, ‘Why are [we] writing these messages when we can just speak?’ I gave him my number and he called me from his office and we proceeded to talk dirty for at least thirty minutes.” —Lisa Weiss

“How can you explain that somebody can be so smart but so stupid?” —Nydia M. Velázquez, a congresswoman for New York

“We don’t expect much of our politicians, but we do expect them to know if they’ve taken pictures of their own crotches and uploaded them to yfrog.” —William A. Jacobson, a professor at Cornell Law School

“It’s time for Democratic leadership to explain why Congressman Weiner’s actions never aroused any suspicion.” —Paul Lindsay, spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee

“I wish there was some way I can defend him, but I can’t.” —Senator Harry Reid

“By fully explaining himself, apologizing to all he hurt and taking full responsibility for his wrongful actions, Anthony did the right thing.” —Charles Schumer, Democratic senator for New York

“I’d like an apology. This was his strategy, which is to blame me for hacking.” —Andrew Breitbart

“I am calling for an Ethics Committee investigation to determine whether any official resources were used or any other violation of House rules occurred.” —House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi